1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to identity (ID) management, theft, and risk assessment, and more particularly, to a technique for detecting systematic and deliberate manipulation of personal identity information.
2. Description of Related Art
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for monetary gain. Unlike fingerprints, which are unique to an individual and cannot be given to someone else for their use, personal data such as a Social Security number, bank account or credit card number, telephone number, name, date of birth, and address can be used by a criminal. In the United States, many people have reported that unauthorized persons have taken funds out of their bank or financial accounts, or, in the worst cases, taken over their identities altogether, running up vast debts and committing crimes while using a victim's name. In many cases, a victim's losses may include not only out-of-pocket financial losses, but substantial additional financial and emotional costs associated with trying to restore the victim's reputation in the community and correcting erroneous information for which the criminal is responsible. In 2010 alone, over 8 million Americans were victims of identity theft. With the prevalence of Internet commerce and online social networking, it has become much easier for criminals to collect and misuse the personal identity information of unsuspecting victims.
Identity fraud can occur without identify theft. For example, a fraudster may acquire someone's identity information legitimately, but then use it to commit fraud. Alternatively, a fraudster may change his own identity information, often slightly, to improperly access goods or services, as well as governmental resources. Typically, the identity change is to pass a credit check that a fraudster would likely fail or to otherwise avoid detection. There are many examples of, for example, a fraudster using slight variations of his Social Security number, and in doing so he will frequently inadvertently use someone else's Social security number. As an example, a registered sex offender may apply for a job with all of his true information, except with an intentional variation in his Social Security number in an attempt to avoid detection of his past criminal behavior. The registered sex offender does not care whose identity he uses, it is just different from his own, but he harms the person whose number he inadvertently uses. Identity fraud is a plague on society as it may be used to perpetuate organized crime by enabling money laundering, people trafficking, drug running, and terrorism.
It is estimated that over fifty (50) billion dollars have been lost by U.S. consumers and businesses annually since 2009 as a result of identity theft and fraud. The good news is that consumers are generally becoming more aggressive in monitoring, detecting, and preventing fraud with the help of technology and partnerships with financial institutions, government agencies, and identity theft protection companies. Numerous identity theft protection companies have been formed in recent years in order to provide subscribers with notifications to alert and resolve actual or potential identity misuse in, for example, credit applications, utility transactions, check orders, and payday loans, as well as provide resources to restore the subscriber's identity and recover any direct losses as a result of identity theft.
ID Analytics, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of LifeLock, Inc.) utilizes its proprietary ID Network®—the only real time, cross-industry compilation of identity information—to glean insight into consumer identity behavior. The ID Network has grown to include over 700 billion aggregated identity attributes (“characteristics”), 2.9 million reported frauds, and 1.7 billion consumer transactions. The ID Network receives an average daily flow of over 45 million attributes via a constant stream of input from its members, including leading financial institutions, retailers, wireless providers, credit card issuers, auto and mortgage lenders, and other issuers of credit. This insight reveals, among other things, anomalous and potentially fraudulent activity. Every day, the largest U.S. companies and critical government agencies rely on ID Analytics to make risk-based decisions that enhance revenue, reduce fraud, drive cost savings and protect consumers.
ID Analytics has also developed and implemented an ID Score, which is a numeric value ranging from 001-999 and reflects the risk-level associated with a consumer's identity, i.e., the likelihood the consumer has been victimized by an identity thief—the greater the score, the greater the risk. The ID Score relies on data within the ID Network and provides an integrated view of each individual's identity characteristics and their connectedness to others' identity characteristics. These identity characteristics include, among other possible pieces of consumer data, Social Security number (SSN), name, address, home phone number, date of birth, cell phone number, e-mail address, and Internet Protocol (IP) address. The ID Score helps organizations effectively pinpoint first-party fraud, synthetic identities, and identity theft in real time. The technology behind the ID Network, ID Score, and applications thereof are discussed in United States Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0149674; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,458,508; 7,562,814; 7,686,214; and 7,793,835, the entire disclosures of which are all incorporated by reference herein. By applying advanced analytics to data within the ID Network, ID Analytics can quantitatively evaluate millions of desirable and suspicious behaviors and relationships in real time to understand identity risk. These analytics generate immediate and actionable insight including the authenticity of an identity, an applicant's creditworthiness, or a consumer's exposure to identity theft.